Throwback Thursday, Week 4: The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are as much a competition between nation-states as national athletes.

This was very much true in 1984, when the Games were last hosted in Los Angeles.

As the city, and the UCLA campus, vie to host an Olympic games for the third time, international politics may again become relevant.

Of course, 1984 was also one of the most politically contentious years in history. And while 2024 is only just on the horizon, who’s to say what the world will look like then? Regardless of whether L.A.’s bid wins, we can only hope competing nations will be on better terms than in 1984.

1984 was in the later stages of the Cold War, with American-Soviet relations as frigid as ever. The U.S. had previously boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow, after the Soviet Union failed to withdraw troops from their invasion of Afghanistan.

That boycott was fresh in people’s minds as the start of the 1984 Games drew closer. The boycott deprived the athletes of a competitive stage, despite their gracious acceptance of the reality at the time.

But alas, relations remained stagnant. Rumors began to circulate as the Games drew closer that members of the USSR would boycott the Games in LA. It was a reminder of two things: firstly, that history is never forgotten, and secondly, that the Games are as much a political arena as an athletic one.

“Politics have long been part of the Olympic Games from Hitler’s Berlin to Moscow’s boycott, and they say the 1984 games that open here … could be the most political yet,” according to an Associated Press wire report that ran in the Daily Bruin in 1984.

The politics took precedence after all. Months before the start of the Games, the Soviet Union announced its decision to boycott the Games, and other USSR members followed suit.

The disappointment was felt by Russian and American athletes alike. An Olympics without true international representation rang hollow, despite the political tensions.

This history seems far from our minds now, considering how far the global frontier has advanced in past decades. The degree of communication and diplomatic relations are far more extensive – and yet far more visible in the advent of technology and social media.

But have we truly transcended these types of tensions? Or have they just transformed?

Truthfully, we have more than enough global issues to once again erupt political tensions: the Syrian refugee crisis, the insidious spread of terrorist organizations, Russia’s global posturing, the rise of China and the fractious race relations in the U.S. And 2024 is still years away. But a recall of history reiterates a global truth: the Olympic Games are as much a political arena as an athletic one – a truth most poignant to the athletes themselves.

And just as with the approach of this summer’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, viewers can watch for two reasons. The Games remain a celebratory competition. But they also, and always will, showcase the state of our global relations.